Chapter Text
“What do you fucking mean, two more weeks?!” Jack’s shout echoed throughout the meeting room. The heads of the departments quivered in their seats as Jack walked around, hands wringing behind his back. “I cannot afford two more weeks, you fucking pieces of trash! Do you not understand what kind of business I am running?!” Jack shrieked into the head of engineering’s ear and he sat there, shaking in his boots.
Jack groaned loudly once more before shoving the engineer away from him, rubbing the backs of his palms into his eye sockets. Shoving the table next to him, the glasses on top of it shattered over the floor as Jack breathed heavily with anger. He took his gun and shot one of the janitors that came in to clean it as soon as he walked through the door, hearing nothing but his body hit the floor as the board room was silenced.
“Out.” Jack muttered as his red vision started to dissipate. “OUT!” He shrieked once more as the members of his company scrambled over one another to get out of the room, stepping cautiously over the janitor’s dead body on the ground. And finally… he groaned as he glanced at the small janitor’s corpse. His face was stuck in shock, arms clutching the bullet wound dead center in his sternum. He was leaking blood all over Jack’s meeting room floor and he sighed, running his hands through his hair.
He needed another janitor. To clean up the other janitor.
How complicated.
Jack pressed the button on his ECHOcom, and Maya’s face appeared annoyed on the other side of it.
“What now, sir.” She sounded extremely bored and was glanced at her freshly painted nails, fanning them every once in a while.
“I need another janitor.” Jack grumbled and kicked the shards of broken glass on his way out of the room, up towards his penthouse on the 47th floor.
“Sir, I just sent one up a minute ago…” Maya started only to be interrupted soon after.
“He’s dead, Maya!” Jack breathed in once and looked calmly into the ECHOcom. “Just… send me another one.” Maya shrugged and closed the connection as Jack started up the stairs to the elevator. He sighed, clicked the key into the elevator operation machine, and waited for his floor.
What was he going to do.
Two week behind schedule… Atlas was going to ruin him three times over in that amount of time. He growled to himself and started to pace around the elevator as it made its slow ascend up to his floor.
He knew what was wrong. The first programming into the gun had been faulty, leading to at least ten deaths in R&D, not that Jack cared. Jack could send them a faulty nuclear bomb and they’d still take the radiation as if it was a pleasure to absorb. He scoffed at the pure loyalty of his workers to lay themselves in front of him just so he could step on them to get up to his high pedestal. But he brought his mind back to the task at hand.
Everything else was done. He just needed the programming for the correct amount of insertion of plutonium and beryllium so that it would create the vortex bullet.
Yes, he just said vortex bullet.
A genius invention really, just one shot would suck the subjects’ gravity in on itself, successfully crushing the subject while leaving no mess to clean up.
It was originally meant for when Jack needed to kill someone insignificant but didn’t want the whole janitor situation happening again. But upon deciding to release it down in Pandora, the hype ensued. Pandorians could not get enough of propaganda for the stuff, some shooting others to get in line for the release.
Which conveniently happened to be in two days.
Fuck.
He needed a programmer that was efficient, loyal and could get the most complex programming Jack had ever asked for from someone down in two days.
Jack almost banged his head against the elevator wall.
It was impossible.
The elevator dinged and he stepped out, slowly making his way towards his couch through the wide open space in his office. The TV was still on, probably left on from when he woke up half off the couch this morning.
But there was another body on the couch, a small one, curled up into a small ball, scrawny arms wrapped around a gigantic horse plushie with eyes that sparkled like they were diamonds. Because they were.
After the terrible night Jack had, he finally smiled at the small child in front of him, slowly sitting down next to her and pushing her hair from out of her face. She almost instantly woke up, rubbing her eyes with small fists as she yawned from the awakening. Jack waited patiently as the small child placed her stuffed horse gingerly down next to her before finally turning her head to face the man sitting next to her.
Her face lit up instantly. “Daddy!” She squealed and leaped at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder for a hug. Jack laughed for the first time in what seemed like ages as he pulled her even closer, falling onto the couch behind him. She pulled back and grabbed her horse. “Butt Stallion and I have missed you!” His daughter squealed once again as she thrust the plushie into Jack’s face and he grabbed the horse.
“Well, you can tell Butt Stallion that I missed him too.” Jack laughed as his daughter’s face pouted. She crossed her arms and followed him with tiny steps as he took strides away from the couch, horse in hand.
“What about me?” His daughter whined and pulled on his pant leg, as Jack looked in the air, puzzled. “What about your daughter?”
“What daughter?” Jack questioned sarcastically and the small child scoffed, pulling her father’s pant leg harder. He finally laughed and kneeled down next to her, pulling her in for another hug. “I’m just kidding.” He pulled her in tighter, pressing his chin into the top of her head and breathing in deeply. “I’ve missed you so much, baby girl.”
His daughter giggled and gripped her father’s shirt as he continued to hug her.
“My little Angel.”
Jack finally pulled away from his daughter, looking at her lovingly for a second before grabbed her torso and heaving her up onto his shoulder as she screamed. “But it’s time to go to bed, Angel. Daddy owes you a waffle breakfast tomorrow, bright and early!” Jack shouted as he trotted over to the separate part of his penthouse, the colors instantly shifting from darker with hints of yellow to more pinks and warmer colors. He ducked under the doorway to her bedroom as she laughed on his shoulder, stopping right at the foot of her bed. He picked her up from his shoulder and placed her down gingerly beneath her comforter, pulling it up to almost cover her nose as she giggled.
Her little hands grabbed it and pulled it down to reach her arms out as Jack handed her Butt Stallion. He kissed her forehead gingerly. “Goodnight, baby girl.”
“Night, daddy.” Angel smiled as she turned over, pulling up the covers over her and Butt Stallion.
Jack smiled and sighed, slowly making his way out and closing the door to make sure she slept quietly. Jack breathed out heavily once more.
This might get a little loud.
He stormed away from her door and her section of his penthouse, quickly looking up at the ceiling as soon as he was across the “border”. He made sure to mutter calmly to his ECHOcom, he did not want another broken machine in the graveyard next to his desk.
“Maya. Please engage silencing protocol.” He calmly took another breath out as he heard the walls behind him close off, sealing his daughter in a sound proof room that he could not get past until his heart rate was below 75 beats per minute. Which might take a while.
He felt his blood pressure spike as all the anger from today rushed back into his system. He screamed, probably gibberish but his vision still turned red and his mind blanked. His anger overtook him and all he could feel was the pounding in his skull as his mind blanked.
He “woke” up around half an hour, not really remembering how he got in the middle of his desk that conveniently happened to be broken in half. He rubbed his eyes as he came to, not really surprised. His anger flashes were a common thing, becoming more and more common by the day. But once he got up, he really was glad he sealed off his daughter.
He had never seen so much destruction from an anger flash, but there it was. Everything was broken. The couch, the television, the computer, the desk, the chair, the coffee table. The only thing untouched was the kitchen and he inferred that it was probably because the twenty feet away it was from the main office was too far. He sighed but started to wipe the blood off of his knuckles, wiping some more from his face as he went to the stairs.
“Sir?” A voice rang out from behind him, clear and unfazed. Jack slowly turned, clutching his right fist to his chest as it stung with pain.
“What, Maya.” Jack said before he even got a look at the unamused Siren. She smiled sarcastically before approaching Jack very closely. He backed up once before she grabbed his shirt and placed her hand near his face. “What are you…” A searing pain hit Jack in the cheekbone and Maya finally pulled back, a long sliver of glass in her hand.
“You had a piece of glass in your face. Sir.” She enunciated sir with true sass. Jack would have smiled if his face hadn’t had hurt so much. “I’ll make sure everything’s replaced by tomorrow morning, Jackie.”
“It is your job, Maya.” Jack sneered as he turned back around, ascending the spiral staircase up to his master bedroom. And collapsing on his bed, not even finding the motivation to bind his wounds.
And so he fell asleep. In a pool of his own blood. What was new.
Rhys jolted awake, his roommate Vaughn standing over him.
“Uh bro? You’re covered in sweat again.” Vaughn stated as a matter of fact, pushing the glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He sniffled once and then held out a hand for Rhys to take.
“Ugh, I am?” Rhys mumbled as he grabbed Vaughn’s hand, the other pressing the back of his palm into his ECHOeye, trying to wake it up. He felt a whirring inside of his head and opened his other eye, feeling it glitch for a few seconds before finally focusing on his friend in front of him.
“Yes. And it is absolutely disgusting.” Vaughn tried to mutter nicely and Rhys laughed, patting his friend on the back before stumbling his way over to the bathroom.
“Anything else?” Rhys asked as he pulled his sweat soaked pajama shirt over his head.
“Yeah, you’re ten minutes late for work.” Vaughn whispered finally at Rhys’ widened eyes.
“SHIT.” Rhys shouted as he got quickly got ready and bolted out the door.
Rhys stumbled into his department, struggling to finish his tie off as he plopped into his seat at the meeting table. It hadn’t started yet, thank heavens, but everyone was still looking at the ruffled man in confusion.
He had definitely had a shit night.
He kept having these flashbacks or nightmares of his surgery. He was told that there were no complications but he kept remembering the surgery as if there was nothing that went right. Rhys snapped out of it as soon as his dick of a boss, Vasquez walked in. That’s also when Rhys stopped paying attention and started to doodle on the notepad in front of him.
“Business, business, business. Business. Business. Business. Handsome Jack. Business.”
Wait, what?
Rhys finally looked up from his dick doodle of Vasquez and was definitely surprised. Vasquez was still up there, the little man but there was also a very tall man next to him. Very tall. Very muscular. And very commanding.
It was Handsome Jack.
No, let me correct that. It was Handsome GODDAMN Jack. And he was standing in the middle of the board room in a power stance with his classic smile on his face.
Oh boy, today’s gonna be good.
“Hello, small programming gremlins. I have a task to ask for only the best of you.” Gremlins. Wow, I feel so appreciated. “I have a project that injects an unstable amount of two chemicals into a bullet and then it creates a vortex bullet.” Jack stated as a matter of fact and then walked around the room, glancing at us every once in a while to make sure we were keeping up with his big words. Rhys rolled his eyes at his boss. Okay, he did respect the guy, bringing up Hyperion from nothing to the most powerful company this side of Pandora, but sometimes the guy really knew how to be condescending.
“Who would like to complete the project?” Jack shouted with a smile and all of the programmers at the table bowed their heads, trying to avoid the eye contact of his heterochromatic eyes. Rhys went back to drawing his boss as a dick, definitely not noticing that he was legitimately right behind him. He also didn’t notice the noise of anguish he made when he noticed the sketch on his notepad.
“Rhys!” Vasquez’s voice rang out in the quiet meeting room and even Jack looked in his direction. Vasquez shrunk for a second, realizing he was under the gaze of his boss, but then smiled and hit Rhys over the head with a thin folder.
“What is this?” Vasquez sneered at Rhys, spitting in his face probably not so accidently. Rhys almost laughed at the failure of an intimidation. Might as well repurpose some of the sass Yvette gives me.
“It’s your final form, assbag.” Rhys muttered under his breath, smiling at Vaughn’s scared expression. He couldn’t hear that. Vasquez turned a new shade of cranberry and the entire meeting room was quiet until a loud laugh filled it.
All heads turned to the noise and it was Jack, head thrown back in full laughter and clutching his stomach in pain. Well, if Jack could hear it. So could Vasquez. Shit.
“Oh boy, Wallethead.” Vasquez’s face dropped from the old nickname. “I thought seeing that little flap of skin on the back of your head from the hair implants was the funniest thing I’ve seen done to you, but that was brilliant.” Jack was almost crying, pounding his fist against the table in a full laugh. Rhys started to smile a little at his bosses cherry face and his skittish behavior. Jack stumbled up to him, grabbing his shoulder and then shaking him as he continued to laugh.
“Ah, man. Wallethead. That was gold.” Jack patted Vasquez’s back and started to stumble towards the door. He gripped the door frame and started on his way out.
“I have to go tell Maya about this, Wallethead. Send me a excellent programmer at 1400 sharp. I need to discuss the plans with them but I can’t stop laughing…” chuckle, “right now.” Jack smiled and whipped out of the room, leaving the rest of the meeting table in shambles.
Whispers and gossip started instantly. About the project. About Rhys’ drawing. About how Jack literally just stopped in to see Vasquez get humiliated and then just fucking left.
“So. Rhys.” Vasquez started and Rhys instantly sighed.
“What, Wallethead?” Rhys muttered once again, laughing a little while he felt good about impressing Jack and Vasquez grabbed the front of his shirt, swinging him around and making Vaughn cringe across the table. Rhys tried to continue his sass approach but at this point, the fury in Vasquez’s eyes was kind of terrifying.
“You!” Vasquez smiled in a crooked kind of way, his usually perfectly placed hair smashed into his face and around his eyes. Rhys shrunk back in his boss’s grip, not realizing how much this would actually get him into trouble. Okay, adrenaline had drained away now and Rhys was back to himself again. And he was completely fucked for it.
Thanks so much for split second decisions.
“You might just find yourself floating outside my office window in a few minutes, Rhys. I’m about up to here with you.” Vasquez gestured up above his head and Rhys gulped, shrinking back even more in his Hyperion vest. “But you do make the programs I get to sign my name onto,” Vasquez shoved Rhys back into his seat and he gasped, trying not to shake as the man strutted around the table, “so I’ll have to come up with another punishment for you.” Good to know he wasn’t the only one feeling scared, the rest of the programming team not used to seeing Vasquez so mad. He was usually the laughing stock of the department, until his temper rose and he threw someone out of his airlock.
“Maybe I could rip off your other arm, kid.” Vasquez leaned in closely to Rhys’ face and smiled at the man’s terrified expression. “Or maybe a loader bot could rip you in half, then sew you back together.” Vasquez was insane. He had never gotten this angry.
“Or maybe…!” Vasquez started, raising his fist in the air before being interrupted by a lady with blue hair, standing in the doorway.
She coughed and Vasquez swerved towards her, fury in his eyes from his maniacal montage being interruption.
“How dare you! I am the head of…”
“Asshats, from what I hear.” She interjected as she stared at her cuticles, instantly making Vasquez’s face turn a deeper shade of red. She looked up as Vasquez started at her.
She almost laughed, a scoff really and then held her hand up to stop him. He laughed louder back and continued closer and closer to her. Finally she rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders and then puller up the sleeve on her large cardigan.
Welp.
Those were tattoos.
And they were glowing.
Vasquez had just pissed off a Siren.
Oh boy.
She smiled at the panic in his eyes and then he was gone. Like fucking poof.
She teleported him somewhere, but where?
“Ah, okay, now that the head of asshats is dealt with, what did I hear about you being the best programmer?” She gestured to Rhys and he slowly stood up, only relaxing when her tattoos started to lose the cyan aura.
“Calm down, kiddo. I just need a programmer now cause Jack got too impatient with his own deadline.” Rhys raised and eyebrow. She sighed. “He does that a lot.”
Rhys finally swallowed and tried to regain his voice and that rush of adrenaline. Sigh, it’s not coming back is it.
“Yeah, I guess you could say I’m good.” Rhys stumbled with his words in front of the frighteningly powerful woman.
He could only stare in amazement at the pure power the Siren held, he was truly impressed, and not that he’d ever admit it. “I mean, yeah I’m good but I’d really rather not die by disappointing Handsome Jack.” Rhys glanced back at Vaughn and the pure terror in his eyes was enough to make Rhys’ stomach start to do flips.
Maya finally looked at the thin man and nodded, pursing her lips to the side. “Well. You’ll have to get over that. Come with me.” She laughed and snatched Rhys’ elbow to his cybernetic arm, dragging him away from the room.
“Wait. Please! Anyone else, I do not want to die!” Rhys pleaded with her as she chuckled, continuing to the elevator and shoving him inside after stepping in herself.
“Well, kid. You’re going to have to get over that fear. Or else you’ll die that much quicker.” She smiled at Rhys’ horrified face and smacked the elevator buttons, propelling the elevator upwards at what felt like light speed.
I’m so doomed. Rhys thought somberly while he was still collapsed in a heap on the ground. So, so very doomed.